23-Sep-2012 -- Sunday, 23 September, I, my wife and my son went to one more visit to a near confluence. At this time, not so near, but yet reachable in only one day.

We left Fortaleza city at 8:00 and caught BR-020 highway, up to Boa Viagem city, 223 kilometers far. We passed by Caridade, Canindé and Madalena cities. The highway up to Canindé is been repaved, and it’s much better than in my visit to 4S 39W confluence, in April. In that occasion, as described in the narrative, I had a flat tire due to holes. From Canindé to Boa Viagem, the highway has yet a lot of holes.

From Boa Viagem, we crossed the long leg in dirt road, 35 kilometers long, up to stopping the car 546 meters close to the exact point. The road is starting to be asphalted.

As in my previous visit, I followed again by the final leg with my son. The path up to the exact point is theoretically very easy, because there is a small road that go up to 10 meters to the confluence. However, the small road passes inside a farm, very near to its farmhouse. Then, we preferred skirt it. We crossed two fences and passed behind the farm, catching the small road ahead. The exact point lies inside a caatinga vegetation area, not so dense. We got the GPS zeroes easily.

Coming back, we try to skirt the farm by the other side, crossing the caatinga. It wasn’t a good idea. But, anyway, we got to go back to the car after some hardness.

We came back to Boa Viagem, had lunch and came back to Fortaleza. Due to great traveled distance (446 kilometers in asphalt road and 70 kilometers in dirt road, plus the leg on foot), we arrived home at night.

Due to the entire asphalt leg of this trip was by BR-020 highway, I had the idea of talking about the interesting project of radial Brazilian highways (“BR” starting with zero). The construction of the capital of Brazil, Brasília, in the central area of the country, in the 1950s, with the goal of integrate all regions, led to the governmental project of create the eight highways starting at Brasília and going up to the edges of the country, following almost exactly all eight cardinal and diagonal directions. The highways are as follows:

BR-010 - NORTH direction: from Brasília to Belém, passing by Palmas;

BR-020 - NORTHEST direction: from Brasília to Fortaleza. There is yet a great leg in dirt road, in Bahia state. I passed by this highway in three confluence visits, including this visit. There is a (transversal) photo of this highway in the narrative visit 4S 39W (photo number 7);

BR-030 - EAST direction: this highway should go from Brasília to coast of Bahia state. Due to it’s the unique highway that didn’t pass by any capital of state, it lost its relevance and wasn’t concluded. A leg in Minas Gerais state wasn’t constructed. Obviously, the inhabitants of Brasília that want to spend their vacations in beaches of Bahia have alternative highways to make the trip. The highway was cited by Marcio Tulio Ottoni Barbosa in his visit to 14S 43W conflence, in Bahia state;

BR-040 - SOUTHEAST direction: from Brasilia to Rio de Janeiro, passing by Belo Horizonte. I passed by this highway in many confluence visits. There is a photo of this highway in the narrative of the confluence visit 16S 48W (photo 8);

BR-050 - SOUTH direction: from Brasília to Santos, passing by São Paulo. The leg inside São Paulo state wasn’t controlled by federal government anymore, and turned to state jurisdiction, changing its name to SP-330 (up to São Paulo) and SP-150 (from São Paulo to Santos). I passed by this highway in some confluence visits. There is a photo of this highway in the narrative of the confluence visit 21S 48W (photo 6);

BR-060 - SOUTHWEST direction: from Brasília to Paraguai border, passing by Goiânia and Campo Grande. The highway was cited by Eduardo Hanazaki in his visit to 21S 55W confluence, in Mato Grosso do Sul state;

BR-070 - WEST direction: from Brasília to Bolívia border, passing by Cuiabá. The highway was cited by Edinaldo Lemos in his visit to 16S 57W confluence, in Mato Grosso state;

BR-080 - NORTWEST direction: this highway should go from Brasília to Colombia border, passing by Manaus and crossing the entire Amazon Jungle. The ambitious (and reprehensible) project wasn’t implemented, and the highway only passes by Distrito Federal and Goiás states.

Concluding this narrative, as I did in narrative to the confluence visit 8S 35W, I need to strongly lament the terms used by previous visitor of this confluence. He said that a local inhabitant isn’t a brave man (he used a more offensive word in Portuguese narrative), that he's rude, and that he never went to the school. He made yet other very weird observations. I thing that there was a lack of respect and education, especially considering that he entered in the properties of local inhabitants in order to reach his goal.